Home
by Whisperwill
Summary: Post-episode 21.  Iroh and Zuko are now traitors.  For Zuko, the pain goes almost too deep to describe.  Iroh attempts to comfort him.  One shot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own _Avatar: The Last Airbender_, nor do I own _Balto II: Wolf Quest_ or the song "Taking You Home." Nor am I making money by posting this story.**

**A/N: Originally completed either late 2006 or early 2007. My take on how Zuko and Iroh reacted after they were branded as traitors to the Fire Nation in "The Avatar State." Read and REVIEW, won't you p-l-e-a-s-e?**

**Home**

Footsteps rustled the grass. Iroh opened his eyes. Not that he was waking up; he hadn't slept all night. And from the restless movements he'd heard in the darkness, he deduced that his nephew hadn't slept, either . . .nor did Iroh expect him to. Zuko had sliced his ponytail from his head, and with it, all ties to the Fire Nation—his home—were severed.

Zuko was moving away from him, into the approaching dawn. Iroh got up to follow.

_Somebody wants you, somebody needs you_. . .

Iroh placed a hand on his nephew's shoulder, offering whatever small comfort he could give. Zuko's entire frame shuddered, but that was all. He would never shed tears, obstinately refusing to relent to such weakness. However, he didn't pull away as he normally did.

_Someone is searching for your heart alone_.

His eyes, as they met Iroh's briefly, burned with emotion. Pain. Loss. Iroh couldn't suppress the surge of anger he felt at the devastation in those eyes. Ozai may be his brother, but there was no one Iroh hated more. How the firelord could do this to _anyone_, let alone his _son_, was inconceivable.

_Someone is dreaming, waiting and watching_. _Someone is coming to take you home_.

Iroh would have done anything to ease, even if only a little, the misery in his nephew's heart. But there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say. Offering empty words of consolation was tempting, but Iroh was no fool. Unless he could find a way to undo all that had happened, to change recent events so that Zuko at least had a _hope_ of going home one day—unless he could do that, Zuko wouldn't have any interest in what an old man had to say. The words would fall on deaf ears. There was no hope for accomplishing what couldn't be accomplished, for reversing the banishment of two so-called "traitors." Nevertheless, it didn't stop Iroh from hoping that maybe in the future, many years from now, when Ozai was no longer firelord . . .they would be able to return to their country, like messenger hawks to the nest.

_Time, it will fly like the sun through the sky_. _And what once was hello, turns to good-bye_.

It might have been only a few days ago that an old general had returned home, defeated and broken, a shell of a man. And a small boy had come to him with a silent plea in his eyes—a plea for love. Both fire general and fire prince had lost someone immeasurably important to them, and were blindly reaching out in the midst of sorrow. Fate decreed that they would find each other. They had become as father and son. And now . . .were they doomed to wander forever, two hawks flying on and on, with no place to find shelter?

_Tomorrow is here now, sings in your ear now_.

The sun was rising. Zuko breathed deeply as the light touched his face. Iroh watched as the prince opened his hand in a cupped fashion, like one about to cradle water. At the moment the light touched his fingers, he answered it by igniting a flame which hovered above his palm. It was a tradition among Firebenders, one which Iroh and his young charge had taken pleasure in, in days of yore. A thrill of delight hummed through Iroh, underscored by a soft chorus of sadness. Would they ever again carry on this tradition on Fire Nation shores?

_Child of my heart, your life is your own_.

Iroh conjured his own fire to match Zuko's. As it had done so often in the past, the old custom lifted his spirits. The sun was shining, and—though Zuko would never agree with him—his nephew's life at last belonged to no one. Zuko's destiny was no longer Ozai's to control. He was free.

_Never you fear, now_. _Your path is clear now_. _Someone who loves you _. . ._ someone who loves you is taking you home_.

Iroh wasn't sure where to go from here. The past was gone, the future full of mystery. But he could be certain of one thing. Wherever their path led, wherever _home_ was . . . he would take Zuko there.

_~The End~_


End file.
